New French Government Not Impressed By Hadopi; Wants To Cut Its Funding

from the reality-catches-up dept

Hadopi, the French 3-strikes program that was "the model" for what the recording industry to push around the world -- trying to get countries to force ISPs to kick people offline after three accusations (not convictions) of unauthorized file sharing -- was one of Nicolas' Sarkozy's key programs. During the recent elections, his competitors certainly hinted that they were less impressed by Hadopi, and now that the Francois Hollande administration is in control, it seems that drastically cutting back Hadopi is in the cards. The new culture minister, Aurelie Filippetti, has made it clear that she is not impressed by Hadopi, arguing that it's a huge waste of money for the government, and is on the chopping block as far as funding goes. Furthermore, she thinks the basis of the program, kicking people offline, goes way too far.

“In financial terms, 12 million euros a year and 60 officers, it’s an expensive way to send a million e-mails.... As part of budgetary efforts, I will ask that funding of Hadopi is greatly reduced.”

Furthermore, she noted that kicking people offline seems "a disproportionate sanction," with little evidence that it supports "the end goal." What's that goal? To increase legal access. As we've noted in the past, while Hadopi tried to declare success, the data shows no increase in sales, which certainly suggests a failure.

What happens next will be worth watching. Some suspect that the government won't actually kill off Hadopi, because it's dependent on support from the local entertainment industry. But that may be the least of its concerns. If France actually scales back or scraps Hadopi, expect the legacy US entertainment industry to go absolutely crazy, followed by "diplomatic pressure" from the US, and ridiculous claims that France "doesn't respect" culture and the like. We've seen it before in places like Spain, Sweden, Canada and Israel when those countries put in place copyright regimes that the legacy players didn't like, and it wouldn't be surprising to see the same thing happen in France.